Burned
by NameForsaken
Summary: It's their first night in Atlas, and Weiss's demons are finally starting to catch up to her. Tumblr prompt. One-shot. Freezerburn (implied).


_Everything was dark…_ _ **so**_ _dark… Time seemed to move so slow as the faces around her blurred and shook and stared. She couldn't make out a single one, couldn't even place her surroundings. She just knew it was dark, and cold, and… and_ _ **loud**_ _._

 _She couldn't remember what had just happened, but she was lying on the ground, her head spinning, ears ringing as she tried to catch her breath. She felt so weak, so exhausted, and all she wanted was to continue to lay there, to close her eyes and get some rest. But a single voice, broken and pleading, urged her forward, reminded her that she had to get up._

" _No…_ _ **NO!**_ "

 _So she moved. She stumbled as she tried to sit up, shaking her head as she tried to make out her surroundings. The blurry space was beginning to clear up, now, color returning to the room as she focused on the tall pillars, the sounds of fighting around her becoming louder, more distinct. She tried to move her head in the direction of the voice she'd just heard, but before she could, her entire body seized._

 _Suddenly, everything_ _ **burned**_ _. It started at her spine, first a small pinch, then a spark, then a pool of fire coursing through her veins, moving to the front of her torso, enveloping her like an enormous wave of lava, crashing over her and dragging her to the depths of an infernal sea. Suddenly, her vision was blurring again, her heart racing, her lungs screaming as she tried to fight the pain, tried to move, tried to rip the foreign object out of her torso before it incinerated her from the inside out._

 _But everything was becoming dark again. As quickly as the pain had come, it had started to fade, and she could feel her consciousness being pulled with it. Her hands moved, but then they stopped, and her eyes became heavy, the room beginning to spin around her again as her arms and legs went limp._

 _ **Is this what dying feels like?**_ _she remembered thinking to herself as she hit the ground, her final thought before her world went black._

* * *

Weiss's eyes shot open, and she drew in the deepest breath she could muster. Her heart was racing, and her arms and legs felt like lead as she tried to move. Every breath she took was accompanied by a hollow, crushing pain, as if she was being pinned down by a hundred weights.

 _What's happening to me?_ she thought as she tried to turn her head, her heart beating faster as a heavy layer of… of _something_ moved with her, covering her mouth and nose and making it even harder to breathe than before. Tears pricked her eyes as the scenes from before flicked through her mind, the pain so fresh, so _real_ , so… so final.

She jerked her head again as the material over her face became heavier, and as she tried to move her arms and legs, she realized the material was covering them, too. She felt so helpless, so scared, so weak as she thrashed about, tears now streaming down her cheeks as she struggled to breathe, to act. But the more she writhed, the more she tried to break herself free, the more tangled the material became, twisting around her arms and legs and causing her body to curl and crumple. She jerked to the right, to the left, whichever way she could, until the ground fell out beneath her, and she was suddenly suspended, falling…

She crashed to the floor with a loud _thud_ , still restrained by whatever it was that was holding her back. But now, she couldn't move at all. Her limbs were too tangled, and one wrong movement could mean a sprained wrist or ankle. So she laid there, stuck, and did the only thing she could possibly do; she _sobbed_.

Tears rolled down Weiss's cheeks and into her ears, her voice trembling with every sob that quaked through her body. She couldn't remember the last time she'd cried this hard, or this _loud_. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd felt this afraid.

 _Why is this happening?_ she pleaded silently, wanting more than anything to start over, to wake up again in a familiar setting, in the light, surrounded by people she loved. She was so upset that she couldn't even remember where she was, or what she had been doing before the nightmare consumed her mind and brought her back to that night. How long had it even been since the battle had ended?

She didn't know how long she had been laying there before a new sound filled her ears, rapid patters against a wood surface that were coming closer and closer. The sudden sound had momentarily halted her sobs, fear now completely consuming every nerve as she awaited the inevitable.

The next thing she knew, the material around her arms and legs began to come undone, and the familiar feeling of flesh pressed against her skin, the touch gentle and timid, whomever it belonged to being so careful not to hurt Weiss as her restraints fell away. At last, the material was removed from her head, and the silhouette of a face came into view as Weiss hesitantly opened her eyes.

"Are you okay?"

And suddenly, just like that, all the fear fell away. Her breath finally returned, steady and relieved, her heart beginning to slow as the warmest voice she'd ever heard echoed through her mind, reminding her she was safe.

The hand returned to her wrist, giving her just the slightest of tugs as the silhouette helped her into a sitting position. Weiss still hadn't spoken, still too preoccupied by the soft violet that stared back at her, the first color that returned to her black-and-gray world. So many emotions whirled around inside of her as she looked up into those friendly, captivating eyes, Weiss could only find one way to possibly convey them all.

As soon as she was upright again, she launched herself forward, her small arms finding Yang's neck, locking securely around the brawler's strong and broad back. She hid her face in the blonde's shoulder, and only then did she allow the tears to return, did she allow the sobs to escape her body once more.

Yang raised her hand to the back of Weiss's head, calloused fingers threading through her long, ivory locks and gently stroking the smaller girl's scalp. "It's okay," she whispered sweetly into Weiss's ear, a hint of emotion cracking in her voice. "You're safe… you're safe…"

Weiss continued to sob in Yang's embrace for the next few minutes, every fear, every worry, every ounce of pain slowly starting to leave her as her sobs turned into whimpers, her tremors into shivers, until, finally, all that were left were silent tears. When she finally felt she was calm enough, she pulled away, and looked up into her teammate's concerned, loving gaze.

"I–I'm s-sorry," she started, not exactly sure what she was apologizing for, but feeling like it was necessary.

Yang furrowed her eyebrows, shaking her head as she brought her hand down from Weiss's head to her shoulder. "No, you don't have anything to be sorry for. I'm here… What happened?"

Weiss closed her eyes, thinking back to her nightmare, to the _memory_ , to the searing pain of Cinder's spear that impaled her body, that had since been healed, but sometimes still felt like it was still there. Now that she was calm, she started to remember. It had been a week since the Battle at Haven. She, Qrow, Oscar, the rest of her team, and their friends had just arrived in Atlas the previous morning, and it was their first night inside the kingdom's walls.

She had been nervous about returning to Atlas ever since Qrow had told them they were to bring the Haven Relic here, to General Ironwood. Weiss knew she would have to face her father again at some point, and that she would finally have to tell her teammates what had happened since their separation, what her father had done to finally make her run away.

But returning to Atlas had been the least of her strife. Every night since the battle, all Weiss could think about was Cinder. About how she had been impaled, how she had been _so_ close to losing her life. Just because her wounds were healed, it didn't mean that the pain wasn't still there. That the memories weren't still fresh in her mind. But her friends had all been through so much, and Weiss had kept her thoughts and feelings to herself, not wanting to burden them more than they had already been. That night, their first night in Atlas, all of those fears, all of those memories, had finally come to a head, and they had manifested in the worst way possible. She hadn't just had a simple nightmare; she'd suffered a panic attack. It was the first she'd ever experienced in her life, and she absolutely did not want to experience another one again.

"Weiss?"

She opened her eyes, tears once again threatening to fall as she glanced back up at Yang. She'd seen Yang shaking, struggling with her own demons for so long, but she had never found the courage to outright ask before. Had Yang experienced the same thing? Had she had nightmares about Adam, too?

"Yang…" Weiss swallowed, just now realizing how dry her throat was from all of the crying. Not only that, but her head was pounding, her nose running, her eyes so puffy she could barely keep them open. She might as well had been hit by a moving truck. "I… How… How did you deal with everything after… after Beacon?"

Her friend nodded, seeming to understand. She shifted, and Weiss, realizing she still had her arms around her, released her grasp, and allowed Yang to settle in beside her on the floor. Yang reached down for the blanket that she'd procured from Weiss's body when she'd fallen off the bed, and she draped it gently across hers and Weiss's lap. "Honestly, Weiss… I'm still dealing with it."

Weiss bit her lip, her breath catching in her throat as she finally allowed herself to verbalize the thought that had been playing at the back of her mind ever since the battle hand ended. "I really thought I was dead…"

Yang tensed, her hand clenching in her lap as she turned away from Weiss. She drew in a deep breath before turning back, and Weiss's eyes widened at the sight of shimmery tears in the brawler's own sorrowful gaze. "For a few moments, there, I really thought I'd lost you, too."

She blinked, trying to find something, _anything_ to say, but words were lost on her as she thought back to the day after she and Yang had arrived at Haven. Weiss had made a promise to Yang not to leave her, had promised to be there for her no matter what, and just a few days later, Cinder had threatened to take that promise away. Of course Yang would have been hurting about it, too, but Weiss didn't realize just how much of an effect the incident had had on her friends… She had thought she was the only one still suffering, but it was clear, looking at Yang right now, that the blonde was still thinking about it just as much.

Yang wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, letting out a sniffle before she lowered her hand between them, and gently took Weiss's in her own. She glanced back up with the shakiest of smiles, and gave Weiss's hand a gentle squeeze. "I won't ever let anything like that happen again, Weiss."

"Yang…"

"I mean it." Her eyes were sparkling, now, the slightest hint of pink visible on her cheeks through the dark as she offered Weiss the most brilliant, genuine smile the former heiress had ever seen. "I didn't get to tell you before because I was still so worried about Blake, but you mean so much to me, Weiss… The way you helped me back at Haven, and even before that, you've always been there for me, and I promise I'm going to do everything in my power to be there for you. As long as I'm around, you're safe, okay?"

Once again, Weiss was left speechless. She repeated Yang's words in her mind once, twice, and a third time as an indescribable warmth blossomed inside of her, a warmth only Yang had ever been capable of making Weiss feel. Oh, how she'd missed her… How she'd missed feeling this close, this _safe_ … Somehow, she knew, even if another nightmare plagued her, even if Cinder herself came back for a Round Two, Yang had meant everything she said, that she would make everything okay.

"Thank you," she finally found the strength to say, offering Yang just as sincere a smile as the brawler had offered her. She held Yang's gaze, wishing she could find a more meaningful way to show her teammate just how much her words had meant. No one in her life before had ever made Weiss feel as safe, as loved, as cherished as Yang had right then, and it was a moment she wanted to remember, to store away in her mind so she could go back to it every time another nightmare or bad memory plagued her thoughts, so she could remind herself that she never had to be alone again. Yang was there, and Weiss trusted her enough to know that she would stay.

Yang stroked the back of Weiss's hand with her thumb, drawing Weiss's attention to their intertwined hands. Her eyes were becoming heavy, now, the shock of her panic attack finally beginning to wear off, reminding her that it was late, and that she and Yang both needed to get back to sleep. Tomorrow was definitely going to be a long day, and they both needed to be fully rested and ready for whatever Atlas would bring.

Weiss looked back up at Yang, smiling once more as she leaned into her friend, and pressed the lightest of kisses to her cheek. When she pulled away, Yang looked surprised, her eyes wide as she watched Weiss untangle her fingers from Yang's, and lift herself up to her feet. "We should get some sleep," Weiss told her, reaching back down for her blanket. "Thanks again for being here for me."

Yang finally reacted, giving her a small smile and a nod, before picking herself up and helping Weiss back into bed. She took the blanket from Weiss and wrapped it gently around her, her hand lingering at Weiss's side for just a moment longer as they held each other's gaze. "If it happens again, please wake me."

"But what if–"

"Come wake me," she repeated again. "I mean it, Weiss. You don't have to go through this alone."

Weiss let out a quiet sigh. "Alright. _If_ it happens again, I'll wake you."

Yang grinned, and finally pulled her hand away. "Good night, Weiss."

"Good night, Yang."

A few minutes later, Yang was back across her side of the room in her own bed, and all was calm once more. Weiss watched her silently, tiredly, until her blond mane was all she could see, until her eyes fluttered shut, and finally, peacefully, she drifted off to sleep.


End file.
